The Egyptian midfielder
joined Spurs for £1.5 million in January 2006, with the
promise of bringing a creative edge to the Tottenham
midfield. What he actually brought was a lack of
commitment to the cause and a disturbing end with an act
that ensured he would not be taken to the crowd's heart.

Initially, Ghaly settled
into the reserves well, with some good skills shown in
the hectic midfield. He looked languid and could
pick out a good pass, but the physical side seemed to
upset him. When he made the first team, he looked
strong enough running with the ball, something he did
well, but he was easily dispossessed and a
disinclination to chase back and tackle. This was
strange, as he was played as a full back in times of
injury and was not the most disciplined when it came to
keeping his shape. Was one of those players who
was good on the ball but not off it.

When he had a good game,
he looked very good. His display against Chelsea
away in the Sixth Round of the FA Cup in 2007 showed
exactly what he was capable of, taking the ball off a
Chelsea defender and running at the defence before
knocking it past the keeper. However, the
instances of his ability were too far and few between.
The crunch came in the home game in May 2007 against
Blackburn Rovers, when he had taken to the field to
replace Steed Malbranque on the half hour, but had such
a poor game that the crowd began to give him stick.
Misplaced passes and a reluctance to chase back after
the ball to regain possession, he was taken off to be
replaced by Robbie Keane. This brought about a
petulant reaction from the midfielder, who stormed off
the pitch past Jol, throwing his short to the ground
arousing the great displeasure of the Spurs faithful.

His name was often linked
with a move away from the club, with Ghaly claiming that
a number of top European clubs were interested in him,
but following a long pursuit by Birmingham City, he
moved to St. Andrews in July 2007 for a fee of £3
million. Except he didn't. A few days later,
it was announced that the Blues had pulled out of the
deal for "footballing reasons", leaving Ghaly to return
to Tottenham. It was rumoured that he had a
training ground strop in a practice match and Steve
Bruce identified that he had a "bad attitude" meaning he
could go back to Spurs.

After that, his career at
Tottenham was effectively finished. He disappeared
from the Lane and was said to be training with former
club Al-Ahly in Egypt to get fit for the Egyptian
challenge for the African Cup of Nations, but he
returned to England, missing the tournament, after a
loan to Derby County was arranged in January 2008.

At the end of that season,
he returned to Tottenham, but was not given a squad
number by Head Coach Juande Ramos, thus indicating that
he could leave the club as he would not play a part in
his future thinking. Once Ramos was sacked in
October 2009, his replacement Harry Redknapp brought
Ghaly back into the squad and praised him for working
hard in training. Unfortunately, his appearance
taking his tracksuit off to come on as a substitute in
the FA Cup Third Round tie against Wigan Athletic
brought boos from the Tottenham crowd and the player sat
back down, as Redknapp did not want to disrupt the flow
of Tottenham's game.

The manager and several
players came out in support of Ghaly, who they said had
made a mistake in throwing his shirt, stating that the
Spurs fans should give him a second chance.
However, there appeared to be no way back for him, as he
failed to make the bench for the League Cup semi-final
second leg, when Spurs had a weakened squad and also for
the FA Cup Fourth Round tie at Manchester United.

Shortly afterwards, on
January 26th, the club confirmed that Hossam Ghaly had
left to join Saudi Arabia club Al Nassr for an
undisclosed fee, but just after just 19 months, he moved
back to his first club, Al-Ahly, where he was a junior
and he was given the number 14 shirt and the captain's
armband. Enjoyed success as captain in November
2012, when he lifted the African Champions league trophy
following a 3-2 aggregate win for his club over Tunisian
side Esperance.